For ESL
Welcome students–we’re excited about helping you on your way to writing and speaking American English in a college setting. Be sure to check out the category for International Students here on our blog.
Hello students at Beiging Jiatong University in China! We hope you are enjoying your writing course, “English for Business.” We hope our web site provides you with many good suggestions for editing and revision. You can get in touch with us at writing.center@valpo.edu to prepare for your arrival on campus in August 2009.
Come in often
As you know, the more you speak, the more fluent you become! Come in often for help with short assignments or questions about vocabulary or grammar. For example, you could plan for two half-hour appointments per week with the same consultant. Also, come to other activities like Conversation Group and our workshops. Our consultants are always ready to talk with you. Interlink students are welcome at Conversation Group and may sign up for appointments when they are enrolled in a Valpo course.
Help you will receive
Consultants can help you understand the assignment, organize ideas, and explain grammar and punctuation. Consultants cannot mark all the errors in papers. Consultants will read your paper, ask questions, and help you meet the demands of the assignment. If you are a graduate student, you may want to meet with the Graduate Tutoring Services. These graduate students can give you much help with your spoken and written English. You will find the writing consultants and the graduate tutors in the Writing Center in the Christopher Center Library.
Most appointments are one half-hour. It may take several appointments to go through a longer paper.
Help on long papers
For longer papers, plan several sessions, several days or weeks. Alert the Writing Center that you plan to drop off or mail a long paper before an appointment. That way the consultant may be prepared ahead. For papers of 20 or more pages, consultations may be limited to analysis of the first 6-10 pages, a few in the middle, and the conclusion. This will allow you and the consultant to identify organizational problems and errors (punctuation, citation, usage) that may be occurring in the whole paper.
Organize your paper with a thesis at the beginning
Many students organize papers in a deductive organization. This means the first paragraph has a clear statement of the thesis, including its major premise and significance. The rest of the paper presents paragraphs of evidence. A good thesis sentence has a key phrase that can be used throughout the essay.
Ideally, many paragraphs begin with a sentence that sums up the major point of the paragraph. The topic sentence will use key phrases from the thesis sentence.
The conclusion will further discuss the significance of the thesis. The conclusion might make a prediction related to the thesis, suggest ideas for further analysis at another time, or add one more thought-provoking point related to the thesis.
Conversation Group
Conversation Group meets once a week for relaxed talk with American students and international students. Check with us for the time and place.
Enjoy your classes! Be a participant!
Writing consultants will be happy to talk with you about your classes and give you help with group projects, oral presentations, or papers. Our handout Getting Ready for American Classes will help prepare you for day-to-day activities.